Orbia's Day

      "Hi, Orbia, can I have a hug?" she asked cheerfully. Orbia shook her head. She had no time; she had to find her plushies. They were downstairs, by the purple bin lid. Orbia buried her head in Zelda's soft-but-dirty purple fur. Zelda would be comfy if she was in the Orbia Nook with me and my guys, she thought. So she climbed back into her hideaway behind the couch. Her guys were right where she had left them.

      "Who's that?" her sister Mystic asked, pointing to the head of one of Orbia's toys. Orbia didn't understand. Mystic must need new glasses. She should know what that thing is, she thought.

      "Hat," she replied. Mystic shook her head.

      "No, no. What's his name?"

      "Orbie."

      "No. His name."

      "Orbie."

      "Argh!" Mystic walked back to the other couch. Orbia continued having fun. Her plushies were playing with each other

      "Hello, Trixie!" Zelda exclaimed. "Would you like to play?"

      "Sure, Zelda!" answered Trixie. "What would you like to play?"

      "Can we play Papa Ixi Hide-n-Seek?" Zelda eagerly asked.

      "Papa Ixi isn't here."

      "Orbia can get him. Could you please get him for us?" Orbia thought for a minute.

      "O.K." she said as she climbed out of the Orbia Nook.

      "Yay!" the plushies shouted together. Orbia walked up to her crib.

      "Hello again, Orbie!" said Catglove. Orbia was close to Papa Ixi. She just had to get into the crib. Back in the Orbia Nook, the toys were getting impatient.

      "Where's Orbia?" Lundros Ixi asked for the eleventh time.

      "She. Is. Getting. Papa. Ixi!" Trixie retorted angrily.

      "When will she be back?"

      "When she gets Papa Ixi."

      "Why can't Papa Ixi come to us?"

      "Oh, just shut up, will you?" Finally, Orbia returned with Papa Ixi.

      "Hello, plushies and Ixi alike!" Papa Ixi said with a sweeping bow. Zelda giggled. Trixie rolled her large green eyes.

      "Can we just play, already?" Trixie muttered, gritting her teeth.

      "All right, all right, all right," the elderly Ixi said, imitating Trixie. "You have ten seconds to hide." He closed his eyes and started counting. "One, two, three..." Everyone was gone by seven, but Papa Ixi found them all within twenty seconds, except Zelda.

      "Zelda has managed to fool me spectacularly! You may come out now, Zelda! I give up!" Papa Ixi's stitching burst, and there was Zelda. She had an attack of the giggles, and Orbia was surprised that she had stayed hidden so long. The game was over, and Orbia was bored. She decided to take a nice walk around the house. After her walk, she jumped back in the Orbia Nook. Trixie and Papa Ixi were having a big argument. Orbia pulled them apart. Trixie was so mad, that she had turned tomato red.

      "Lemme at 'im! Lemme at 'im!" she yelled. On the other wall, Papa Ixi was equally riled up.

      "I want to challenge that Trixie in the Battledome!" he yelled, using phrases he had learned from Mystic and Lundros. There was instant quiet. Everyone turned to look at him. Orbia was turning red, the complete opposite of Papa Ixi's pale, white face.

      "I-I didn't mean it," he said quickly. But it was too late.

      "Don't ever use challenge another plushie ever!" Orbia roared. "As punishment, you can't go to the Games Room with Zelda and Trixie!" Papa Ixi buried his face in his blue hands. The plushies, on the other hand, were already getting their shoes on to go to the Games Room.

      "I love the Games Room!" exclaimed Zelda.

      "Me, too," Trixie agreed. They were now in front of the Games Room on Roo Island. The plushies got in line for Advert Attack.

      "Won't you play with us, Orbia?" asked Zelda. Orbia smiled, and shook her head.

      "I'm not good at games," she said. "But afterwards we can go get some waffles!" The game started. Zelda and Trixie's ships moved farther and farther ahead, until Orbia could only see two colored blobs. Waffles took a little while to make, so she headed back to Catglove.

      "Waffle," she said to Catglove. Catglove nodded, and pulled out her wallet to get waffles. Then Orbia hurried back to the game. Trixie's ship was just past Zelda's, and was now accelerating speedily. She could hear Trixie's delighted screams as the scores were announced. The game was over just as Catglove came back with the food.

      "Plushies can't reach the picnic table, so I'll bring you your share," Orbia told the hungry plushies. "Wait in the inventory sack." Zelda and Trixie nodded. Orbia hoped that Trixie wouldn't get into more fights. She hurried to her owner, where the delicious waffles were waiting. Orbia ate what she estimated one-third of the waffle, and brought the rest back home. She opened the inventory sack to check on her toys. Luckily, there were no fights. Papa Ixi was now telling a story about a warrior plushie princess.

      "And Lola picked up her stick, and hit the evil Kougra. 'That'll teach you to eat my pie! I have half a mind to take you to the Battledome,' she shouted." Papa Ixi got a warning look from Orbia, and he hastily continued. "The Kougra hissed, and took a swipe at Lola with her claws." It was a good story, and the morning passed by without Orbia noticing.

      "Lola looked into Jerry's eyes, and whispered, 'Thank you, dear Werhound.' And Jerry whispered back, 'You are welcome, my lady', and they lived happily ever after. The end." Zelda sighed.

      "That was so lovely," she said dreamily. Trixie was chattering gleefully about Lola fighting the evil Kougra.

      "And she just took a little stick, and hit the Kougra! Jerry didn't even have to rescue her!" Trixie said, happily. Orbia was thinking about pies. It's a shame that the Kougra ruined the pie, she thought. I'm so hungry I could've eaten ten of 'em. She wanted a sandwich, so she headed toward the Kitchen. Catglove was glad to give her a delicious peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich. Orbia watched her to make sure she did it right.

      "You left the crusts on!" she complained, but Catglove couldn't understand her. Only her toys spoke Orbish. The rest of her family spoke Neopian. Lundros spoke a bit of Doodle Neopian, but although it was closer to Orbish than Neopian, she still couldn't understand it. After Orbia finished her sandwich, she started to play with Lundros. He chased her with a little action figure. Orbia ran away from him, giggling. All went well until Lundros chased her through the doorway leading to the Kitchen. Something happened- Orbia didn't know what –but she felt pain like no other shoot through her paw. She screamed, and Mystic came running.

      "What did you do?" she demanded of Lundros.

      "It was an accident... I didn't mean to do it...," he muttered. Mystic guessed what had happened, and cuddled Orbia. Catglove entered the Dining Room, and took Orbia from Mystic.

      "Doodle slammed the door on her paw," announced Mystic.

      "Where does it hurt?" Catglove asked Orbia. "Does your paw hurt? Lundros, what do you say to Orbia?"

      "Sorry," Lundros said as directed. Orbia didn't believe him. Despite his sincere tone of voice, he still wasn't truly sorry. After her paw had recovered, Orbia headed back to the Orbia Nook. Her toys would want to know about this.

      "Whoa, no way! How'd he get away with that?" Zelda asked incredulously.

      "I don't know," Orbia admitted. "It happened really, really fast."

      "Did it hurt?"

      "A lot."

      "Are you O.K. now?"

      "Yes. But it still hurts a bit," answered Orbia. Just then, Catglove came over.

      "Find your shoes, Orbie!" she said enthusiastically. Orbia complied, and Catglove put her shoes on.

      "Where are we going?" asked Orbia. Amazingly, Catglove seemed to understand.

      "We're going to the Neopian Book Store," answered Catglove. They walked into Neopia Central, and entered the bookshop. Catglove stopped at Kelp on the way home, but Orbia didn't want anything. She didn't mind though. Catglove had cooked dinner for her.

      "I made her some eggs, but they're hot and need to cool off," Catglove said to Mystic.

      "Cool off..." Orbia repeated. She never passed over a chance to learn Neopian. She was quite hungry, however. If she could just remember the word for food...

      "Duck," Orbia said, certainly. Instead of a plate of steaming eggs appearing in front of her however, Catglove told Mystic to get a rubber ducky.

      "No, no, no!" she yelled in Orbish. "I want food!" Orbia stared at her fork. It looked remarkably like a pickle. With bumps and everything. Hey! Maybe it is a pickle. I should try it, she thought. Orbia sank her teeth into one of the bumps. Not anything like a pickle, she decided, but it was fun to chew.

      "What's she eating?" Mystic asked.

      "I don't know," replied Catglove "What is she eating?"

      "She's eating the bumps on the fork."

      "Let's see if her eggies are done." Catglove stood up and walked to the cabinet. A moment later, the steaming plate of eggs of Orbia's dreams was sitting in front of her. She dug in. It seemed like it only lasted a moment before it was gone. Orbia climbed out of the High Chair. There was no use sitting in it if the food was eaten. She could hear her toys calling to her.

      "Rescue us, Orbia!" they pleaded. "Release us from this yellow prison in which we have been confined!" Orbia knew that if she dumped them out, Catglove would get upset, but if she didn't, then she would feel guilty. She made her choice, and rolled the yellow container down the stairs.

      "Thank you, Orbia!" they called.

      "Oh, Orbia!" called Catglove, clearly exasperated. But Orbia was looking for some toys to help her with her Neopian.

      "Who wants to help me learn Neopian?" she asked. Three duckies came forward.

      "Me, him, and her!" one of them said cheekily. "Or in Neopian, Me, him, and her!"

      "Great! Now what?" Orbia said.

      "Now here is what you say when you go to bed: Night-night."

      "Nyt-nyt."

      "You say bath time when you are taking a bath."

      "Bahf tym."

      "And there is a tool called a hammer."

      "Ham-er."

      "That's all for today." Orbia decided to play with Lundros. They ran around the house laughing and screaming. Orbia found an apple core on the ground and started to munch on it. Lundros started hitting her with Papa Ixi.

      "Sorry-oof-don't want-ow-probably should stop talking-ouch," he said between hits.

      "Stop!" Mystic shouted at Lundros. Lundros knocked Orbia to the ground.

      "Ow!" she complained. Then they started spinning around, with Lundros holding onto the sash of her dress. She fell down, and Lundros tried to pull her up. There was a ripping noise.

      "Stop! You're going to rip it!" Mystic yelled. Orbia got up, and they continued twirling.

      "Just—Argh!" Mystic started to say something, but stopped. Just then, Catglove came in.

      "What are you doing to her?" she asked Lundros.

      "It's the Orbia-Leash," he answered.

      "Stop it. She's not a Warf," Catglove said. "Or I'll put it on you."

      "You know, Lundros and Orbia," Mystic said, clearly amused. "I'm writing a story about you for the NT. So you might want to act a little better. Right now I have you slamming the door, and knocking Orbia on the ground." Suddenly Trixie started screaming.

      "He's stomping on me, he's stomping on me!" she yelled.

      "Stop, stop, stop, stop!" Mystic shouted. "Orbia, you're going to bed. Bedtime, Orbia!" With that, she picked up Orbia and whisked her upstairs.

      "Nyt-nyt," Orbia said.

      "Can I have a hug before she goes to bed?" Catglove asked.

      "Nononono!" Orbia exclaimed. She didn't want a hug. She needed a diversion. Luckily, there was a pile of socks. She picked up two that looked like they would fit her, and put them on.

      "Why do you want socks, Orbie?" wondered Catglove.

      "Because I have Babaa hooves, and I would like to hide them," said Orbia sarcastically. "Because I don't want to go to bed, of course!" Finally, Mystic picked her up, and placed her in Catglove's arms. After that, Orbia was put to bed. The crib was lonely without her beloved plushies. Catglove threw Trixie at the opening of the crib, but missed.

      "OWOWOW!" an irate Trixie bellowed. Catglove shut the door, so Orbia was able to climb out of her crib and get Trixie. When they were back in her crib, safe and sound, they started to play with Orbia's red kazoo. A few hours later, Orbia started to yawn. Within a few minutes, she was fast asleep.

The End